Premier League Golden Boot
The Premier League Golden Boot, known for sponsorship reasons as the Barclays Golden Boot, is an annual English association football award given to the top goalscorer at the end of the Premier League season, the top domestic league competition in club football in England, since its creation in 1992. Golden Boot awards are also awarded to the first players to reach 10, 20 and 30 goals in a season. The top-scoring Premier League Golden Boot winner is Andrew Cole with 34 goals in a 42 game season, while Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo jointly hold the record since the league changed to a 38 game season, with 31 goals. Thierry Henry has won the award most times in four seasons with Arsenal, while Shearer has won it three times with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United. Robin van Persie of Manchester United is the current holder of the Golden Boot – his first – having scored 30 goals for Arsenal during the 2011–12 season. Combining the statistics for all winners up to 2011, a Premier League Golden Boot winner scores an average of 24 goals from 35 games, a strike rate of around 0.69 goals per appearance. Recipients As of 2010–11, 16 players from 11 different clubs have won the award. The award has gone to a single player each season, with the exception of three seasons, the 1997–98 and 1998–99 seasons had three players who scored 18 goals each, while two players scored 20 goals each in 2010–11. Only five players have won the Golden Boot more than once, Thierry Henry (4), Alan Shearer (3), Didier Drogba (2), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (2) and Michael Owen (2). Of those players, only two have won it with two different clubs, Shearer with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, and Hasselbaink with Leeds United and Chelsea. Winning the Golden Boot is not necessarily associated with league success; over 20 seasons to date, a winner has only been part of the league-winning side eight times. Players from seven nations other than England have won the Golden Boot, with France and the Netherlands being the only countries with more than one player winning the trophy, with two and three respectively. Reflecting the increasing presence of foreign players in the Premier League, while no foreign-born player had won the award before 1997–98, no Englishman has won the award since Kevin Phillips in 1999–2000. Dutchman Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was the first foreign player to win the award outright in 2000–01, after he had first shared it with Dwight Yorke of Trinidad and Tobago in 1998–99. Goals and strike rates The number of clubs in the Premier League was reduced from 22 in the 1994–95 season to 20 in the 1995–96 season, meaning that from the 1995–96 award onwards, players have had a maximum of 38 games to register their total number of goals for a Golden Boot, reduced from a maximum of 42 beforehand. Only Alan Shearer has played every league game during a Golden Boot-winning season, when he scored 34 goals in 42 games in Blackburn Rovers's title winning 1994–95 season. The fewest games played in a season while still winning a Golden Boot, is 30 games, when Michael Owen scored 18 goals during Liverpool's 1998–99 season. The highest number of goals scored to win the Golden Boot is 34, a record jointly held by both Andrew Cole (from 40 games) and Alan Shearer (from 42 games). The highest total for a 38 game season is 31 goals, jointly held by Cristiano Ronaldo (from 34 games) and Shearer again (from 35 games). Cristiano Ronaldo has also registered the highest strike rate recording in winning the Golden Boot, scoring those 31 goals over 34 games, during Manchester United's championship winning 2007–08 season. Every winner of the Golden Boot has so far recorded an average strike rate of at least one goal every two games, and scored a minimum of 18 goals. List of Golden Boot winners The following table is a list of winners of the Premier League Golden Boot per season, detailing their club, goal tally, actual games played, and their strike rate (goals/games). Key to symbols: * † – denotes the award was shared that season * C – denotes the club were also League Champions that season * E – denotes the player also won the European Golden Shoe that season * (x) – denotes multiple winners of the award and their running total Landmark awards The Premier League also presents a Golden Boot Landmark Award to the first player to reach 10, 20 or 30 goals in the season in the race for the season long Golden Boot. See also *Top Premier League goal scorers by season *English football first tier top scorers *List of English football champions *Pichichi Trophy *Capocannoniere *Gol Kralı *Bundesliga top scorers *List of top association football goal scorers by country Notes References }} Premier League Golden Boot Golden Boot Category:Lists of association football top goal scorers by season et:Premier League'i kuldne saabas gl:Bota de Ouro da Premier League ru:Золотая бутса английской Премьер-лиги uk:Золотий бутс англійської Прем'єр-ліги